Hamlet Polski. Portrait of Aleksandra Wielopolskiego
Jacek Malczewski , 1903
100 × 148 cm
oil on canvas
National Museum Warsaw
Hamlet Polski. Portret Aleksandra Wielopolskiego is an allegorical painting by Jacek Malczewski from 1903. The 100 centimeter high and 148 centimeter wide painting, executed in oil on canvas, shows the leader of the government of the Congress of Poland, Aleksander Wielopolski, surrounded by two allegories of the fate of Poland . Hamlet Polski. Portret Aleksandra Wielopolskiego is in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw .
Image description
In the center of the composition is Aleksander Wielopolski , who led the government of Congress Poland. He is shown in a yellow-green robe and wears a cartridge belt with tubes of paint instead of cartridges . Wielopolski plucks the leaves from a flower. To his left, Malczewski showed an allegory of unfree Poland, portrayed as an old woman with handcuffs. On the other hand, to the right of Wielopolski, i.e. on the heraldically more important side, the painter depicted the young Poland with broken fetters. The picture thus refers to two possible developments in Polish history that depended on Wielopolski's decisions. The title of the painting with its reference to Hamlet also refers to the decision dilemma . In the background is a view of a city with a port.
background
Hamlet was received in Poland as the Polish prince and held an important position in Polish culture. This is why the portrait was given this title. The historian Wiesław Juszczak said of the painting: “This is not 'a' man in a background, which may represent nature 'in general,' but a Pole against the background of Poland.” This shows the national interpretation framework of the allegory.
literature
- Beate Störtkuhl: Art and Nation: Cracow's Development to the Cultural Capital of Divided Poland in the Late Habsburg Monarchy , in: Gun-Britt Kohler, Rainer Grübel, Hans Henning Hahn (eds.), Habsburg and the Slavia, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978- 3-631-53123-5 , pp. 353-387.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Beate Störtkuhl: Art and Nation: Cracow's Development to the Cultural Capital of Divided Poland in the Late Habsburg Monarchy , in: Gun-Britt Kohler, Rainer Grübel, Hans Henning Hahn (eds.), Habsburg and the Slavia, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978 -3-631-53123-5 , pp. 353-387, 370.
- ↑ stacieknecht: Hamlet Polski , on: slavischestudies.wordpress.com, December 3, 2013, accessed on May 12, 2016.